


Blood Loss

by telm_393



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Food Issues, Friendship, Gen, Menstruation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 15:39:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6290224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telm_393/pseuds/telm_393
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey begins bleeding from an unexpected place. She and Finn are concerned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood Loss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brilligspoons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilligspoons/gifts).



> Look, as far as I can tell Rey was REALLY isolated on Jakku, so I wouldn't expect her to know a lot of "basics". Also, malnourishment can do screwed up things to your body.
> 
> About Finn: I sincerely doubt he ever came across the concept of menstruation in the First Order. I assume there were gendered barracks, and that Stormtroopers are not fertile.

[](http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/nia939/media/BLOOD%20LOSS%20REAL_zpsxgkmco6b.jpg.html)

Rey’s staying at the resistance base when it happens.

Secretly, she’s kind of relieved about that, because she can’t think of a conversation she wants to have less with Luke than “I’m bleeding from…there”.

Because she is. Bleeding. From her…

Anyway.

Rey’s never felt particularly connected to her body when doing things that aren’t fighting (because in combat she feels a connection with _herself_ that she has never felt before, and the rush she feels would be dizzying if it weren’t the exact opposite— _centering_ , like, for once, she is all of her at the same time, her body and brain and heart as one), so she mostly feels a detached dread when she realizes there’s blood soaking her underclothes.

She checks, and the blood is definitely coming from…

Anyway.

Rey feels almost personally affronted at the realization that she has no idea what to do. She’s heard of sicknesses that infect humans _there,_ but most of them are sexually transmitted, and Rey is positive that she’s never had any kind of sexual contact. She’s never even kissed someone. The whole business has honestly always seemed cringeworthy to her, being so close to somebody else, so vulnerable. The point is that Rey doesn’t understand why this is happening to her. She supposes that this was going to happen, considering that there have been occasional specks of blood on her underwear for she’s not sure how much time, but she never mentioned it because it never seemed important. She figured it was chafing or something, but her clothes are clean and sand-free now, and the blood has come much thicker this time.

Her stomach clenches and cramps, and she feels like throwing up everything she ate earlier.

(“You can slow down, the food’s not going anywhere,” Poe told her kindly early on when she kept choking on her bread, she was eating so fast because it tasted _so good_ and they just _gave it to her_ and she didn’t want them to…to _un_ give it to her _._ She’d looked up with her mouth full and blinked at him and then at Finn, who had shrugged at her like he didn’t get it either.

She’d nodded and then tried her best to swallow her food with the knowledge that it wouldn’t go anywhere, to see if it tasted different. It didn’t, really, but it was nice to know it was _her_ food.)

Rey’s chest tightens, because this sickness, it seems like the kind of thing that gets people killed, not just because it might be fatal, but because being sick gets you weak gets you useless gets you dead. Rey feels a surge of anger at this unexpected wrench in her plans. Luke’s going to be so disappointed if she gets too ill to continue training. And…and _she’s_ going to be disappointed.

Rey stares at the blood on her fingers, hangs her head, and gives into the tears that have been building up behind her eyes.

She doesn’t know how long she’s there, sitting in her room, trying to cry quietly and not so messily, but someone knocks on her door and she throws the thing closest to her, which happen to be her blood-soaked underthings. “Oh, that’s _disgusting,_ ” Rey says to no one in particular, and then she starts sobbing in earnest.

Whoever’s outside her room realizes the door isn’t locked (she still can’t figure out that silly high-tech lock after years of bolts and lock picking) and opens it.

It’s Finn, she just knows, and she’s right.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, alarmed, and Rey makes a miserable gesture at the bloody fabric next to the door.

“That’s blood!” Finn says, and Rey refrains from making some kind of snippy comment about his stating the obvious. “Rey, are you hurt?”

“I think I’m sick,” she says, sniffling as Finn sits next to her. She pulls her tunic over her knees. “I’m bleeding.”

“I know, but…what happened?”

“I don’t know! It just started, and my stomach is _killing_ me, maybe it’s something I ate, but that doesn’t make _sense,_ because I’m bleeding from my…”

Rey’s not crying anymore, not really, just ranting, but she scrubs away a few frustrated tears that have fallen anyway.

“From where?” Finn asks, sounding totally confused, reassuring Rey that she’s not the only one.

“My…” Rey starts, and then she makes a vague motion downwards.

“Your…” Finn says, confused.

Rey looks at him, takes a deep breath, and hopes her wide eyes and attempted expressiveness makes her more insistent motions clearer in some odd, floundering way.

“From your…” Finn says slowly, sounding like he’s getting the picture but also not sure if he’s getting the picture.

“There!” Rey says.

“Your _vagina_?”Finn asks, horrorstruck.

Rey hisses, “Shhh!”

She doesn’t want anyone to know she’s sick, and she certainly doesn’t want Finn squawking about vaginas at full volume.

“What do we do?” Finn asks, and then his face goes blank like he’s trying to scan through his entire brain to find a solution, or even explanation, for this problem.

Rey shoves him to snap him out of it because it’s creepy, alright, the sudden robotic detachedness. “I don’t know! How would I know?”

“Well, you’re the one with…” Finn makes an awkward gesture down at her general lap area, and Rey groans.

“I still don’t know what to _do_ with it!”

Finn stiffens next to her and then he looks at her, his eyes wide. “Poe.”

“What?” Rey asks, but she already knows what he means. She can’t believe she forgot about Poe, who knows everything and hopefully won’t get doctors involved unless it’s really an emergency, because Rey would like to avoid doctors as well as possible. She doesn’t like doctors. She’s never needed them before, and she doesn’t need them now, with their solemn eyes and their furrowed brows and their faces covered up with masks like they’re hiding.

Not to mention that they’ll probably tell on her to the General and Luke, and then everyone will know Rey got sick, that she’s just as weak as a little starved girl plucked off of Jakku should be.

“It’ll be fine, Rey,” Finn says, sounding very sure of himself. Or, well, not so much sure of himself as sure of—

“Poe,"Finn says. “We just have to find Poe.”


End file.
